NORTH YORKSHIRE COUNCIL
21 May 2025
STATEMENT OF EXECUTIVE MEMBER FOR OPEN TO BUSINESS
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, REGENERATION, TOURISM & SKILLS
UK Shared and Rural England Prosperity Funds
North Yorkshire Council working with partners has just completed delivery of the UK Shared and Rural England Prosperity (UK SPF & REPF) grant funding investing just over £22m in North Yorkshire communities over three years with £15.5m in the last financial year 2024/ 2025. The grants supported thriving places, communities and businesses and transition to a net zero economy through direct capital investments and programmes of skills, events and innovation.
Through this programme we’ve been able to support:
· 785 projects overall, with
· 851,351 ‘people reached’
· over 1000 jobs created / safeguarded
· £161m of increased investment
· 2,568 local events / activities supported
A full evaluation of the programmes will be published.
Further UK SPF and REPF funding has been allocated for York and North Yorkshire for this year (a total of over £10 million) to be administered by the York and North Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority.
North Yorkshire Business Week
Our first North Yorkshire Business Week will be running from 16 -20 June, themed around Innovation. A week-long programme of physical and online events and training will be available for North Yorkshire businesses across the county covering a wide range of business topics such as AI, skills, maritime and renewables, marketing and export.
Tourism
New Head of Service - Tony Watson, joined as the new Head of Tourism at the end of March and has been actively engaging with key contacts from the Visitor Economy and the wider stakeholder network.
New Website. The new Visit North Yorkshire website has now gone live replacing our temporary website and our legacy district destination sites. The new site will allow us to deliver more compelling and engaging campaigns to grow the visitor economy in line with the Council’s Destination Management Plan. The site has launched with a selection of features, and new functionality will be added over the coming months.
By bringing all our destination content into one domain we can now demonstrate all that North Yorkshire has to offer its visitors, encourage longer stays, and offer a consistent level of support to the visitor economy across the county. We know we have inherited better
coverage of attractions and businesses in some parts of the county than others. We will continue to engage with businesses across the county to grow our representation of North Yorkshire’s visitor offer. The website offers many more opportunities for income generation too, which is a priority for the service.
Meet North Yorkshire – the newly launched Convention Bureau for North Yorkshire Council attended CHS Leeds (Conference & Hospitality Show) at the Royal Armouries in Leeds on 25 March 2025 showcasing meeting and event spaces across North Yorkshire. As part of the event, we also launched our new North Yorkshire Venue Guide for 2025 (https://issuu.com/visitnorthyorkshire/docs/meet_north_yorkshire_venue_guide)
Regeneration
Town Investment Plans
£1.2m of funding has been secured from the Combined Authority for the North Yorkshire Town Investment Plan programme, and work has started in our three urban centres (Scarborough, Selby and Harrogate) and two of our towns (Richmond and Malton & Norton). Current work includes reviewing existing strategies, compiling and understanding the evidence and setting up the programme teams. The next stages will involve stakeholder engagement to help identify the themes each settlement will focus on. Once themes have been identified then further engagement and work to develop the vision for each town will be done over the summer and early autumn. Work on other towns will start later in the year and/or in future years, depending on where towns are in the 3-year programme of activity.
Catterick Garrison LUF
Catterick Garrison LUF is progressing well. A cost exercise has brought the project back into budget without compromising on overall quality and aesthetics. Currently the project team are negotiating the construction tender before work can begin on site early summer.
The tenders have been received and evaluated for the centre operator and a preferred bidder identified. Contract negotiations have commenced.
Local engagement through the art installation has been well received by the community.
Plan for Neighbourhoods
Scarborough has been fortunate to be selected as part of the Plan for Neighbourhoods programme. The initial task is to establish a Neighbourhood Board and confirm the area for future investment. Scarborough’s existing Town Deal Board will be repurposed. Invitations for new Board members and an independent chair is currently being advertised. The Neighbourhood Board’s will have until the end of the year to confirm their priorities against the £20 million investment fund. The Regeneration team will be supporting the programme and community engagement.
Scarborough North Bay Soft Market Testing
The marketing campaign for Scarborough North Bay successfully generated a good level of interest from developers. The Council is now arranging follow up meetings with likely investors before deciding on the final route for development.
Whitby Maritime Hub
Work started on site on 7 April on the £10 million new facility on Endeavour Wharf. Ground works are progressing well. The council and the main contractor, Wilmot Dixon, are working together on a social value programme to ensure that the residents can benefit. This will include working with local companies, school visits and engaging with the maritime sector.
Whitby Old Town Hall
Restoration of the Old Town Hall has started and is progressing well. Currently the historic clock tower is being restored with heritage features being mended or reinstated. The market has been successfully moved to a temporary home on dock end and traders have reported good sales.
Tadcaster Bus Station
The majority of the enhancement scheme is
now complete. All outstanding items will be completed by the end of
May 2025.
Sherburn in Elmet Low Street Enhancement
Scheme
Work started on site at the end of
February and the project is now moving into Phase Two of the
programme, with completion at the end of August 2025.
PLANNING
Delivery and Infrastructure
The Delivery and Infrastructure team has continued to make progress in accelerating the delivery of housing across North Yorkshire and ensuring developer contributions are collected and spent effectively. Key milestones and highlights include:
· The Development Plan Document (DPD) to guide delivery of Maltkiln is now at an advanced stage, currently subject to an examination in public. Consultation on the Proposed Modifications closed at the end of March and the responses are now with the Inspector for consideration. Subject to the Inspector not re-opening the hearing sessions, we anticipate receiving his report May/June
· As a result of on-going partnership working with Homes England we have recently received two offers of financial support to support our strategic sites delivery work:
o £63k of ATLAS revenue funding alongside ATLAS capacity support for the allocated South Cayton site near Scarborough. This will assist in the preparation of a delivery implementation plan to ensure co-ordinated infrastructure funding and delivery.
o £6.7m from Homes England via the Brownfield, Land and Infrastructure Fund. This is recoverable grant and will allow the early delivery of infrastructure to support the West Harrogate development.
· On 18 March the Executive agreed that further is undertaken to establish strategic infrastructure priorities before CIL monies are allocated. Alongside this member workshops would be held. Previous CIL allocations were re-confirmed. At the same meeting the Executive also approved the 2023/24 Infrastructure Funding statement and agreed that it be published on the Council’s website.
Planning Policy & Place
· The first major stage of consultation on the new Local Plan for North Yorkshire will take place over eight weeks from 19 May until 14 July. The council will be consulting on key issues that the plan will need to address, including asking for views on a new sustainable growth strategy. The consultation will not include specific sites, this will come later at the draft plan consultation stage.
· Preparation of the evidence to support the local plan continues as well as targeted engagement with infrastructure providers, neighbouring authorities and other key stakeholders.
· The local plan “Call for Sites” process is still open and approximately 1700 sites have been submitted to the council to consider in order to meet the needs of the area. Members of the public can view all the sites submitted so far on the Council’s dedicated call for sites webpage.
· The updated Local Development Scheme (the timescale for producing the local plan and other development plan documents) was approved by Executive in March and can be viewed on the Council’s website.
· At Council in February the decision was taken to stop work on the Selby Local Plan
· The service continues to support the preparation of numerous Neighbourhood Plans, led by local communities across North Yorkshire.
HARBOURS
Good progress has continued with the dredging to Scarborough Harbour, and it is anticipated this will be completed before the start of the Summer season.
The application for a dredging licence in Whitby is currently subject to ongoing statutory consultation.
The works to repair the Fish Quay in Whitby have now started on site and are anticipated to be completed in May.
Works to refurbish Filey Sea Wall are progressing well and will also be completed in May.
A useful meeting was held with Orsted regarding the opportunities related to offshore renewable energy wind farms. It is unlikely that Orsted would see a need to utilise NY Ports to serve their East Coast UK projects as they plan to continue to utilise port facilities at Hull and Grimsby. It is possible that alternative NY Ports locations might be suitable for CTV/ Guard Vessel/Survey Vessels operators and our focus should be on engagement with those suppliers.
COUNCILLOR MARK CRANE